When “Old One” and “the Blight” are mentioned: which characters are these?

Perfect, thanks :)

The word “aligned” is being used here in a way that seems subtly different than what I’ve heard before. A quick definition and/or link to the place(s) this usage comes from would be really useful.

I haven’t ever seen an academic article so direct and even sardonic, especially not one railing against such an established practice. I guess that’s what a Molotov cocktail looks like in print.

That wasn’t just clear and impactful, it was fun to read. Thanks for linking, lifelonglearner.

Welcome!

Also...I think it still may need a fix: paragraph 11 now reads

normative way; that you should wire it the way I say just because,

but I think you want to swap the comma with the semi-colon:

normative way, that you should wire it the way I say just because;

This is fantastic and absolutely the conversation I want to be having.

Ditto on everything Qiaochu_Yuan said. Huge thanks for writing this, Romeo.

Two typo fixes that would have saved me a headache:

Paragraph 11:

normative way. Like you should wire

I think you meant “normative way, like you should wire”

Second-to-last paragraph:

Though the Buddha taught one specific concentration technique and a series of simple insight techniques, but there are probably a dozen

I think you meant to omit either “Though” or “but”

When something is accepted as true, then observations to the contrary become surprising. So, if I’m surprised to find it raining out, then I’d assumed it was going to be sunny.